Telling Our Story

So we thought we might tell our story and fill you in on who we are what we do and our Journey in Small Business so far. It always makes more sense when you get a feeling you have some bond and degree of Trust with the people you are dealing with. 

So we are Colin & Jennifer, Jennifer teaches fashion at Tafe does some private fashion courses and some of her own in house designs. Design both fashion and interior are entrenched in her blood. Shes passionate about it and her latest passion is the second storey extension at the house, which will hopefully happen later this year (fingers crossed, sourcing a builder is a nightmare atm). Colin comes form a business background and runs the online and small wholesale arm of the business from home, with a studio here and currently a pop up at Branka's Cafe. Previously 3 Bears was based at unit 1 339 Cambridge street in Wembley for 10 years. To say it was a tough existamce is an understatement we paid 84 grand a year (7 a month) for that location, and in business they say that rent should be 10% of your takings so based on that we should have turned over 840 grand a year, we weren't even close over 500 but certainly not 840. Which is why retail is so stupidly hard atm, The skyrocketing commercial rents make it very hard for independant retailers to survive unless they own the building outright. This is often why so many commercial tenats go broke in shopping centres as one smalll downturn can cut revenue and eat into savings, then every 5-10 years they are required to refurbish the premises completeley often costing 200 grand plus. So you can see why we shifted home as all we have to worry about now is servicing the home loan, and getting two teenagers through high school (not as easy as it sounds lol). 

Our new model is a studio at home where people can drop by at odd hours and try on or pick up any orders they may have placed. We were very lucky to launch this prior to covid and have been going rather well from the home. There are swings to and from the web and to instore, we have options to cover both.  This makes our new model more personable and more viable than our previous model, you can see why its so demanding to make a viable income these days. 

Anyway thats a brief overview we are now in our 13th year of running our own business and we are still surviving in this tumultous time of global economic uncertainty. We thank you for your ongoing support and will continue to strive to bring in new fresh interesting designs from Asutralia and around the globe.

Thanking you for your support Colin & Jennifer. :)